Article ID: CBB945357298

Flower Breeding in Early Modern Istanbul: A Science of Seeds (2022)

unapi

In the seventeenth century, new varieties of flowers were created in Istanbul’s many agricultural spaces. At the same time, new literary genres related to flower breeding appeared: technical “how-to” manuals, which derived from an earlier tradition of agricultural treatises; encyclopedias of the flower varieties created in Istanbul; and biographical dictionaries of Istanbul’s flower breeders. Such texts, which typically bear the designation Şükūfe-nāme (Books on Flowers), attempt to prescribe note-taking habits, agricultural timelines, and observational techniques. Varieties of flowers with various shapes, sizes, and colors are attributed to the work of individual local breeders. This essay explores the role of seeds in this rich textual production in Istanbul. As things that are mobile yet can take root, seeds became objects of study during what was an era of heightened exchange and mobility in seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul. In contrast to the view holding that the history of flower seeds unfolded primarily in Ottoman exchanges with Western Europe, the case of Şükūfe-nāme works shows that seeds were technological objects with local histories.

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Article Prakash Kumar (2022) Introduction: Seeds and the History of Science. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 581-587). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB945357298/

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Authors & Contributors
Curry, Helen Anne
Chacko, Xan Sarah
Wells, Lindsay
Bragagnolo, Manuela
Christoffer Basse Eriksen
Iveta Nakládalová
Journals
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Victorian Literature and Culture
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Revue Économiques
Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza
Economic Botany
Publishers
University of California, Davis
Yale University Press
University of Chicago Press
University of California Press
Oxford University Press
Fitzroy Dearborn Pubs
Concepts
Seed industry and trade
Economic botany; plant cultivation; horticulture
Seeds
Botany
Agriculture
Flowers
People
Delany, Mary Granville
Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Schomburgk, Robert Hermann
Ruskin, John
Power, Henry
Muratori, Lodovico Antonio
Time Periods
17th century
19th century
18th century
21st century
20th century, early
20th century
Places
United States
Great Britain
England
Svalbard, Norway
Guyana; British Guiana
Southern Europe
Institutions
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
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